Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The State runs monopolies and cartels

North Korea Is Just Like Us from ANTIDOTE by Sauvik

Thus, the news that a Competition Commission of India (CCI) has been constituted should be greeted with howls of derision. The body is supposed to act against cartels and its approval will be required for all acquisitions and mergers. In reality, all that is required for free competition is open entry into all markets.

In India, most markets are closed. Civil aviation is a case in point: the sector was wide open and there was full-blown competition until the government killed it by raising taxes on aviation fuel to sky-high levels, thereby forcing most low-cost airlines into mergers. If competition barely exists today, it is the civil aviation ministry that is to blame.

Further, it is our The State that runs monopolies and cartels – as in steel, as in roads, in electricity, in water – and even in booze shops in Delhi, where the competition commission is headquartered.

The conclusion: Our The State is nothing but a bundle of lies and deceit. It is run by a political cartel, one which includes the top bureaucracy. They call it “democracy” but it is much like East German and North Korean democracy, very far removed from the basic democratic ideal – that power must be diffused, not centralized. Overseeing this democracy is a politicized Election Commission, comprising politicized bureaucrats. Ditto with the new Competition Commission. Pretty ugly, huh?

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